Jim's Beer Kit

Thoroughly. Hot, cold, soak & cip. But how did you test whether the sanitisers actually sanitised? If you're using a 'sanitiser' hot then you're doing it wrong, unless you're sanitising by submerging in boiling water or steam. Cleaning products on the other hand are often most effective when used h...

Many thanks for responding, I'm seeing loads of iodine disinfectants with varying prices and I've found Bimodex at £40 for 5 litre https://www.farmacy.co.uk/bimodex-iodophor-disinfectant-5l/p7905 is this the same thing and safe to use for brewing? I'm presuming that it'll keep and that would clearl...

I have a similar issue. For most of my sanitisation I have a 1 litre spray bottle which I fill with a starsan mixture made with distilled or reverse osmosis water. RO water can be got from aquarium shops or the spotless water dispensers. Distilled water can be bought at car shops, or somewhere like ...

While it’s infuriating that the numbers don’t add up, for practical purposes, whether your total hardness is 54 or 68ppm matters not. 14ppm CaCO3 is pretty much the minimum resolution by measurement error when testing alkalinity. Your effort would be much better placed on other practical brewing eff...

Pellets combined with protein break from the boil are able to clog any kind of mesh that doesn't let them through. The simplest answer is just to remove the filter from your kettle. After cooling your wort, let it sit for half an hour and then draw the wort off from above where the pellets have sett...

Yes I had the terrible Salifert kit.

It was the acid in the kit that was the problem, not the blue indicator reagent.

Don’t worry about oxidation - it won’t happen. The surface area you are exposing is tiny, you’ll be opening it for seconds, and when you’re done you just pour out a quarter pint to make sure the exposed beer is gone and the beer line is full of liquid. The exposed beer would only get poured if a fl...

As LeeH has said, the most likely blockage is in the poppet. So depressurise the keg and take the post off. Have some tea towels around to catch any beer that comes out. Don’t worry about oxidation - it won’t happen. The surface area you are exposing is tiny, you’ll be opening it for seconds, and wh...

Surely it is the taste/flavour of the beer that is important, not what it looks like. Having said that I don't particularly like hazy beers. Form follows function. The haze in a Hazy IPA/NEIPA is thanks to the massive amount of dry hops used to create an intense fruity/hoppy aroma and flavour. Dry ...

It's this simple. Brewers who can brew produce attractive bright beer. Those who cannot brew produce cloudy crap and justify it by saying that ls what they intended to make. That’s just nonsense. Sorry. No need to say sorry but don't call it India Pale Ale. Because it does not look or taste like it...

I've done a 30 minute boil for a NEIPA that turned out great. That was more about personal time saving than for any other reason.

I don't do it regularly though.

It certainly looks cool, but I'm not sure who it's marketed at. Surely it's too expensive/complicated for beginners, and too limiting for more advanced brewers? Once you've got the unit you either have to buy their recipes or pay them 90-100 Euros a year for membership to make your own. Feels a bit ...

My process for batch sparging is: Add the batch sparge water Stir well Leave it 5 minutes Stir again Recirculate a few litres to remove any fine malt dust Run off as fast as you can. Two sparges are always more efficient than one, but to be honest by the time I’ve done that sparge process twice it’s...

Great stuff!

Is now open for entries here: https://competitions.londonamateurbrewers.co.uk/labopen/ Will be back at Hammerton Brewery this year and we're still running the biggest home brew sampling of the year on Sunday 14th May. The competition will be judged by qualified judges from all over the world. If you...